14 DAY TRIAL // A new offering from Microsoft is designed to enable federal, state, local and tribal agencies to have enhanced insight into large quantities of data related to security threats and natural disasters, and to take better decisions based on that information. Fusion Core Solution, now broadly available to customers, as per the announcement at the Esri Homeland Security GIS Summit in San Diego July 10–13, was built by Microsoft together with Esri. According to the duo, the Fusion Core Solution will streamline a variety of processes related to data, from gathering, analysis, but also sharing and archiving. In the end, the purpose of FCS is to allow authorities to better tackle a variety of threats, including from organized crime, gangs, drug cartels and terrorists.
“Fusion centers work with massive amounts of information, which can be difficult to organize, analyze and distill into meaningful and usable intelligence,” explained Joe Rozek, executive director of Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at Microsoft. “Without access to effective information management, fusion center managers and analysts often lose valuable time and effort determining what information is relevant to the current task.”
Under-the-hood of the Fusion Core Solution lie technologies such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Esri’s ArcGIS Server. Through the combination of technologies, the two companies are offering advanced intelligence and information-sharing capabilities to authorities.
Microsoft also announced the first full-scale deployment of FCS. The Utah Statewide Information & Analysis Center (SIAC) in Salt Lake City has embraced FCS with the promise that the new offering will be offered to more than 180 local law enforcement agencies across the state in the future.
“Previous attempts to work in such a collaborative way proved fruitless, as it involved an inefficient use of time and resources. Now we can better use existing assets and integrate with domain-specific applications, while improving business processes, compliance and communication,” said David Carabin, former Intelligence Bureau Chief and Commander of the Utah Department of Public Safety. “This allows us to take more proactive action to prepare for and respond to crises and to counter potential threats and criminal activities.”